Asking Someone to Defrost Freezer

Ask a neighbour, preferably female, to help and find switch.

Once switch has been identified, label it. Run down fridge and freezer so your freezer items can be stuffed into the fridge.

Shut fridge and open up freezer with towels on floor. A hairdryer will start the ice melting and a flat wooden spatula can be used to poke and prise away the ice. I like yo use a heat gun, but that baby has to keep moving, unless you're destroying a hefty slab of ice. Wave hairdryer around intermittently. A washing up bowl in the bottom can catch the ice to dump into the sink.

Make tea and put the radio on as this may take some time.

When all of the ice is gone, bleach the mould, rinse and wipe with a dry tea towel and replace the freezer stuff. Close freezer door, turn power on and mop the floor as a cold puddle will have collected in front of the fridge freezer.

Have another cuppa and go shopping.

I mentioned upthread that we have isolator switches, similar to the photo. Ours is in a cupboard, but not even in the kitchen! Maybe you have similar, otherwise, you'd need to turn the kitchen circuit off at the switch board.

You don't need a hair dryer, bowls, or baking trays with boiling water will do the trick nicely. Just replace boiling water as the ice cools it.

I agree with pp go to your fuse box and flick the switch for the kitchen, it should be clearly marked.

My plug is in the cupboard next to it, there is a chance though when it was fitted that they just plugged it in behind.

You will only need to isolate the kitchen if you do it at the mains.

My fridge and freezer have the cable through the back of the cabinets next to them with a socket that I can unplug them from.

If you don't want to turn off the electric supply to the whole house and you really can't find the socket, you could just take the relevant fuse out of the fuse box.

Your fridge is like a cool box so if you don't open it you don't have to worry about it warming up.
Eat as much from the freezer as possible so there's less to save.
Find the switch for the fridge freezer and turn it off.
Put any frozen food into a cool box or crate with as many cool blocks/ice cubes as you have.
Open the freezer door, take out the drawers, put a towel on the floor in front of the opening ( or a shallow tray if you have one that fits) and chip away and big bits of ice: then use any non-damaging means at your disposal to melt the rest: as pp have said. Once it's gone just wipe it out and put the drawers back in. Turn it on. Half an hour later you can put the food back as long as it hasn't defrosted.

2 x hairdryers at once

Have you looked inside cabinets for plug / switches. Or a switch on the wall nearby. Itmust be somewhere.

My integrated FF, to get to the freezer I have to have the fridge open, there is then an on/off switch inside. It's a Hotpoint.

I put the freezer food into a cool bag and just leave the fridge food where it is.

The fridge will be fine switched off for a bit if you don't open the door. Just like it's ok if you have a short power cut.

But you do need to switch the freezer off to defrost, otherwise it's just going to be going full pelt trying to stay cold while you're making it hot to melt the ice. You can damage it by doing that.

Also don't be tempted to try to chip the ice off, you can damage the cooling thingy doing that and puncture a pipe, then it'll be banjaxed.

If it is a combined fridge/freezer, you won't be able to turn one off without the other. Just flick the switch off at the socket.

When I defrost my fridge/freezer I run the contents down a bit, then freeze some ice packs and move the contents of both fridge and freezer into an ice box whilst I defrost and clean both out.

I feel you OP my fridge needs sorting and I have a psychological block (I’m going to bribe my mate to help me face it.) I saw a new app on Instagram called TaskHer for female tradespeople, might be worth a look? Maybe whoever would be open to you watching over their shoulder to get a couple of tips?

You really don't need to buy harmful and dangerous chemical. Just turn the freezer off.

My boyfriend and I had a big freezer clear out at the weekend, and have vowed to spend this week eating nothing but frozen leftovers so it’s (hopefully!) empty in time for this coming weekend when we plan to defrost it. I’m loving the ideas of putting a cake tin/sauce pan of boiling water on each shelf to speed up the process- would never have thought of this! Thank you!

If you can't access the power for the fridge freezer then turn off the power to the whole house at the fuse box.

Open the freezer, put towels/trays under the freezer, leave the door propped wide open and go out for the day. The fridge should be OK for a while if it is left closed but I would run down the stuff in the fridge and freezer before you do it - just a few sauces and butter will be fine.

I don't want to sound judgemental, but: the OP's question is surprising.